Europe A La Carte Blog

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The Happy Hotelier posted a picture on his blog calling us the “two grayest” travel bloggers. After I took exception to being called a grey travel blogger (too many connotations of being dreary, dull and uninteresting) he changed this to “two of the youngest at heart” travel bloggers.

The Happy Hotelier and me at the citizenM launch in Amsterdam

Happy Hotelier you’ve got to come up with something  which better expresses our scintillating offerings as travel bloggers rather than our appearance or age. Any suggestions readers, only flattering, please?

Written by Karen Bryan, Editor

I’ve often thought it would be great to have a social news site solely for travel and here it is Travel off the Cuff. On a social news network like Digg or Stumbleupon readers can submit articles that they like and members of the social news site can vote on the articles that they like.  Articles with a lot of votes are listed near the top of the page.  Travel off the Cuff’s founder, Mark writes a blog about his travel experiences for the site.

I like the ethos of the site that you can have a “great trip without having to plan every minute of the day”. Of course there is planning involved in putting together your trip. I believe that you should leave time for spontaneity and wandering around, not have an itinerary that is so crammed that you end not seeing anything properly as you dash around. I hope that the articles on the site will encourage this attitude to travelling.

I’ll be visiting Travel off the Cuff over the next few weeks to vote and comment on stories that appeal to me and submitting stories which I think deserve some publicity.

Travel Rants has been award Best UK Travel Blog in the Travolution Awards 2008. It’s a well deserved accolade for Travel Rants editor, Darren Cronian. Travel Rants is the UK’s only independent travel consumer blog. There are a multitude of concerns for UK travel consumers with recent posts about airlines thinking of charging extra for window and aisle seats, the hazards of travelling without adequate insurance and road testing of travel booking websites. Darren has intervened to assist some consumers by contacting the holiday companies concerned on behalf of the consumer.

Congratulations Darren and keep up the good work.

I was hoping to gain some insight into “What readers want from a travel blog?” from last night live blog. However although the live blog was a really interesting and informative discussion between travel bloggers, there was no input from travel blog readers. Maybe the event didn’t get enough publicity. There were 20 viewers at the event and the couple of viewers who made comments were bloggers. Perhaps a few of the other viewers were travel blog readers who didn’t wish to make comments.

The majority of visitors to my Europe a la Carte blog come through search engines and appear to be interested in reading about the specific topic about which they are searching. I’m not sure if readers want to subscribe to blogs and receive every post leading to being b(l)ogged down by information overload. I also think that many readers aren’t aware of blog subscription.

There’s also the misconception that blogs are the online outpourings of teenage geeks rather than a type of online magazine. Travel blogs can also be interpreted as travelogues i.e. a personal trip diary of a travellers. Would we travel bloggers be better christening our blogs “online travel magazines” rather than “travel blogs”? |t could be that readers will be more willing to subscribe to a magazine that to a blog.

My blog is an extension of my online travel business, a way of promoting the business. Personally I’m not too obsessed by the number of subscribers to my blog or even the number of page views. It’s how many visitors are converted into buyers of accommodation, car hire etc and/or click on the ads, whether than be on the blog itself or on the main site. generating income for me, that is of importance to me.

In conclusion to answer my question “What do readers want from a travel blog?” - useful, relevant and entertaining posts to fulfill the readers current desire, whether that be armchair travelling, information about a destination, insightful commentary, inspiration, beautiful photos, travel trips or offers. So no easy answers for travel bloggers.

You could argue it’s wise to write a niche blog eg concentrating on luxury travel, a specific destination but then some readers may prefer a blog, sorry should I say online magazine, which covers various aspects of travel. I suppose I fall into both camps, my Europe a la Carte blog focuses on authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget, although that still gives me an awful lot ot cover. The other blog for which I write, Wandalust aims to inspire people to develop the irresistibly strong desire to travel, well that could be anything and anywhere.

You’re invited to tonight’s live blog featuring 5 travel blogger panelists discussing “What readers want from a travel blog”. You just need to come to this post at 8pm British Summer Time, which is one hour in advance of Greenwich Mean Time (here’s a link to check the time in your time zone). The console below will go live and you can follow the discussion and make comments or pose questions to the panelist. You can read about the panelists below.

I’m Karen Bryan, creator of the Europe a la Carte blog, hosting tonight’s event. I’ll be moderating tonight’s live blog. My travel business Europe a la Carte features authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget. I started a blog for my travel business in October 2006. I try to make my posts useful, informative and entertaining for readers who want to see more of the real Europe, beyond the well worn tourist track. I recently started as the editor of Wandalust a UK travel blog.

I’ve listed the panelist in alphabetical order of their first names. I asked the panelists to email my their own introduction.

David Stanley is the author of Moon Handbooks South Pacific, Moon Fiji, and Moon Tahiti, published by Avalon Travel Publishing of Berkeley, California. His South Pacific travel blog is intended to provide updates to his printed guidebooks and to discuss issues of interest to Pacific travelers.

Gil Zeimer is an accomplished travel writer, advertising wordsmith and globetrotter. His true passion is his role as lead editor/writer of www.Vagablond.com, a luxury travel blog focusing on travel, food, wine and shopping. Since the site’s launch in April 2005, Gil has crafted over 1,325 stories and acted as catalyst for Vagablond’s position as the online resource for luxury travel with highly entertaining content.

Hi, my name is Jeanne from Soultravelers3. We are 20 months into an open ended, multi-year trip around the world as a family on a tight budget & we blog/vlog about our adventures and collaborate with other readers, travelers, teachers, schools, and homeschoolers around the world. We retired early and also share how-to information about that, mobile global living, e-education & homeschooling while traveling, budget family travel and RVing in Europe and world wide. This year we are excited about bringing a few classrooms of disadvantaged children in NYC and Chicago along with us virtually!

I’m Sebastien Tobler, I believe that my blog Colliding Continents offers a true travelers perspective that strays from the beaten path. I think that my experiences around the world can help people find a more qualitative approach to traveling. Having lived in a significant amount of countries throughout my life I find that there are ways to better assimilate with the cultures you live in/are visiting instead of maintaining an outsider’s perspective.

Tom Meyers is the founder and the Editor-in-Chief of EuroCheapo.com. EuroCheapo’s mission is to make travelers’ time in Europe affordable and memorable. EuroCheapo’s editors have scoured Europe’s most popular cities to find hotels that are both welcoming and wallet-friendly. The hotels EuroCheapo recommends are perfect places to settle in for a few days while exploring cities, interacting with locals and learning about the places you’re visiting. EuroCheapo’s budget travel blog includes daily posts containing advice and insider information for saving money while traveling. The EuroCheapo blog focuses on areas that are most likely to impact travel budgets, including hotels, budget airlines and alternative transportation options, and the occasional restaurant recommendation.

I recently blogged about Travel Alltop and how I think it’s great to have the most recent post headlines of the leading travel blogs on a single site. This set me thinking that there’s now no need to subscribe to blogs on your favourite topics if you can just skim down the topic page on Alltop.

I may be shot down in flames for such heresy by many bloggers for whom one definition of the success of their blog is measured by the number of RSS subscribers proudly displayed on their blogs. I’m looking at it from the readers’ perspective. Why be b(l)ogged down with all the posts from several blogs when you can easily and simply pick and mix what takes your fancy on the Alltop topic page? You could argue that reading the most recent post titles of the 60 or so travel blogs featured in Alltop Travel will increase information overload.

I suppose this is going to put even more pressure on bloggers to come up with zappy post titles to attract readers. Will it force we bloggers to come up with consistent excellent posts for readers to become subscribers to ensure they never miss any of our riveting posts?

I’ve never been too obsessed by my subscriber numbers. I look at my overall blog stats. Of course all we bloggers would love to have regular readers but you can have regular readers who aren’t subscribers. I still believe if I produce interesting, informative and entertaining contents I’ll get readers. It’s great that readers now have more choice in how they access blogs.

Will you still continue to subscribe to your favourite blogs? Are fellow bloggers concerned about the possible decline in subscribers?

Tracy Deluca is the author of the Travel Betty blog which “encourages fearless independent travel for women”. Tracy believes “travel is freedom”.

1 What is the aim of your blog?

Travel is a passion of mine and I put a lot of time and effort into researching destinations. I realized that I had a lot of knowledge that would be useful to pass along and I wanted to encourage more people, especially women, to get out there and see more of the world.

2 What prompted you to start your own blog?

I love writing as much as I love travel. I had been writing another blog called How I Died Today. It was just for fun and to learn blogging basics. After taking a travel writing seminar in San Francisco about a year and a half ago, I decided to switch over and focus on Travel Betty.

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your blog?

Finding time to write posts. I have so many thoughts and ideas, but I never seem to have enough time to write it all up. The other hard part was finding a blog techie who was competent and reliable. I finally found Joel at BlogTechGuy.com and he helped to whip my blog into shape.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your blog?

Nothing particularly hilarious has happened so far (I’m hopeful it will!). But I have been able to meet some really amazing people through blogging. I met up with Chris at Nomad4Ever.com when I was in Bali last year and that was a real treat. It’s also great hearing how I’ve been able to help other Betties plan their own trips. I love it when someone writes back and lets me know that something I wrote led them to their own grand adventure.

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

I would have gotten someone to help me with the technical aspects right from the beginning. I also would have started off with my own domain name and used a hosting company like Dreamhost. I started off using Blogger and had to switch a few months in. That was a time consuming process. But really, it’s all a learning experience and I’m so very happy I started Travel Betty. I’d encourage anyone who is thinking of starting their own blog to take the leap. We’ve all got amazing stories to share, no matter what the topic.

My comments

I think it is a good idea to self host your own blog from the outset, it gives you more freedom and control. Luckily one of our sons is my IT expert (he’s a 3rd year computing student} and he got my Europe a la Carte blog set up as part of my main site. Unless you are in the fortunate position of being an all rounder, a blogger really needs some technical support.

Finding the time to write posts is always an issue. This is especially true for me now that I write five posts a week for Wandalust as well as writing for my own blog. I find I might have a good idea for a post but if I don’t take a note of it there and then I’ll probably forget it.

From next month “flogging” or misleading commercial blogging will be outlawed by the European Union. Under the new rules companies who post glowing reviews of their own products or services or pay others to enhance their reputation. will be liable to prosection.

It’ll be interesting to see if transgressors will be tracked and prosecuted. It sounds like the EU might have to employ an army of investigators. I also wonder if prosecutions will be successful as that will hinge on whether the information posted is likely to affect the buying decision of the average customer.

For a start what is an average customer? You could even argue that recent publicity about flogging should have made the customer aware that user generated reviews are not always reliable or honest.

In some respects perhaps the new rules are a little late. I recently wrote about the declining appeal of user generated reviews due to information overload as well as mistrust of the content.

Do you think this new legislation is timely, necesary and/or enforceable? Would negative publicity about offenders be the most more effective deterrent - the modern day equivalent of a public flogging?

Nominations have opened for the 2008 Travvies. It’s up to you the readers of travel blogs to nominate your favourites.

There are several categories:

• Best Travel Blog
• Best Single-Author Travel Blog
• Best Group-Written Travel Blog
• Best Destination or Trip Narrative Blog
• Best Informative/Practical Travel Blog
• Best Photography on a Travel Blog
• Best Big Media Blog
• Best Podcast or Video Blog

So think back over the last year and decide which travel blogs have been the most informative, useful, interesting, inspirational and/or entertaining to you and get nominating. You can choose up to 3 blogs in each category, so if you’re a fan of multiple blogs you won’t be forced to choose between them.

I’m delighted that the Europe a la Carte blog has been nominated in the Best Destination or Trip Narrative category.